Chapter 339: Butterfly Effec (1/2)
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Nan Xun was glad that Jun Huang had regained some of her memory, but it pained him to see her face pale. He knew what she remembered couldn't have been pleasant. “It's alright. Those things are in the past. I won't let you get hurt like that again. And we'll soon get your revenge.”
Nan Xun had been thinking about killing the emperor of Eastern Wu for a while. He had to wait until he found out what their mysterious foe was planning so as to not alert them. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to let the emperor off the hook.
“Don't worry, I won't forgive anyone who's hurt you.” Nan Xun's eyes turned ferocious, his tone frigid.
Jun Huang pursed her lips in concern. However, the emperor of Eastern Wu had fallen from his grace. It wouldn't be difficult for Nan Xun to give him another push.
There had always been tension between the emperor and the Eastern Wu's royal clan. Eastern Wu was established by the royal clan. In the beginning, every emperor had been handpicked from the clan. Later, however, some of them started to get greedy. They wanted their descendents to inherit the throne.
The royal clan intervened and stipulated that only the empress's son could become the next emperor. If that didn't happen, the clan would pick the heir from its members.
The current empress never got pregnant. If not for the royal clan, the emperor would've replaced her with another consort. The royal clan asked the emperor to take in a clan member as the heir, but the emperor saw that as part of their conspiracy. He worried that the clan would turn on him in the future, and therefore hadn't given them an answer.
No one expected things to turn out this way. The emperor's sons were not his real sons. He was being forced to adopt a child from the clan. However, he knew what a difficult position he was in. He was even more concerned that he'd be the bridge the clan burned down after they achieved their goal.
“Why must you be so stubborn, Your Majesty?” the patriarch said at a deliberate pace, sitting across from the emperor. “Look around you. If you don't adopt, are you going to let someone else's child take the throne? You've raised other men's children for many years. Do you really intend to give what is yours away?”
He laid down the facts without sugarcoating his words.
The emperor could taste blood in his throat. He scowled and glared at the patriarch with a scoff. “I was the one who expanded Eastern Wu's territory. My child should be the one to rule over it. Why should I share my achievement with you?”
“Don't forget that you can't have a child, Your Majesty,” The patriarch said bluntly. He didn't care at all about the emperor's ego.
The emperor's face darkened further. He clenched his fists, wanting nothing but to kill everyone who had been mocking him behind his back. However, he knew he couldn't do that. He was as free as a captive could be.
The patriarch rose to his feet and continued to explain the situation. The other members of the clan echoed his words and tried to sway the emperor.
Finally, the emperor flew into a rage and shot to his feet, knocking teapot and cups off the table. “You're making a fool out of me! This is my nation. I will not allow you to put a finger in it. Get out of here if you value your lives.”
The clan members shared a look. The patriarch pursed his lips and said “Your Majesty should reconsider,” before walking away with the others.
The emperor couldn't quell the fury in his heart. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He took off a sword from the rack on the wall and slashed at a waiting maid.
The blade hit the maid squarely. She collapsed to the floor, dead. The emperor laughed hysterically. The other maids dropped to the floor and trembled, but their pleading didn't stop them from getting killed.
The emperor's personal eunuch witnessed everything from a hidden corner of the room. He watched as the emperor continued to stab the dead maids aggressively, as if he was trying to turn their bodies into paste.
The eunuch touched his face and arm, feeling the scars left by the emperor from the banquet throb. He took a deep breath and frowned when he smelled the blood. While the emperor wasn't watching, he snuck out of the back door.
He didn't realize how scared he was until he got out of the room. He trembled and almost fell to the floor. With a hand on the wall to support himself, he made his way back to his residence and started packing, putting in his rucksack the items the consorts gave him as bribes. Once that was done, he hid the rucksack under his bed. Then he retrieved a small pack of white powder.
His eyes darted around. If he was to keep himself safe, he had to do something. The powder was an insurance.
He brought a bowl of congee to the emperor. He'd added some powder inside. His back was covered in sweat. Although the maids' bodies had been cleaned up, he was still scared. He was even more nervous that he'd anger the emperor.
Fortunately, the emperor had gone back to normal and didn't do anything to the eunuch. He sighed in relief and walked away, but not before adding some medicine into the tea the emperor was drinking as well. That happened to be seen by one of Nan Xun's men.
Nan Xun didn't expect things to turn out this way. He smiled. Here came his opportunity. Once he'd decided what to do, he snuck into the palace with the night as his cover and waited for the eunuch in his room.
The eunuch started when he opened the door and saw a stranger. Before he could open his mouth, Nan Xun unsheathed his sword, the blade reflecting the moonlight. The eunuch covered his mouth to stop himself from making a sound.
“I'm here to make you a deal, gongong,” Nan Xun said coldly.